To wander the woods at night
Until you find your place
There,
close your eyes and breathe deep, deep
Of forest and flesh and earth
Until it hurts
Until your head falls back from the glorious thundering pain

Eyes that serve champagne
Touch like summer rain
Kisses that drive me insane.
Why should I resist
When he cuffs my wrists,
Brings me to heel
With fifty calibers of steel
And turns me inside out​ With his tongue?

​Here's the thing...
​ it doesn't know the balance in your bank account
color of your skin
political leanings
age
weight
height
gender.
Here's the thing...
it didn't read that book
talk to your best friend
listen to the podcast
create that checklist.
Here's the thing...
it knows emptiness
​ sorrow
loss hopelessness
​ despair.
Here's the thing...
it knows what completes
​ brings joy
restores
​ gives strength
fulfills dreams.
Here's the thing...
it knows why you're hurting
and what will heal
​ where you're broken
and how to fix.
Here's the thing...
it doesn't know what's recommended
it knows what's right.
Here's the thing...
​ it knows only your soul.

I woke in his arms
in the blood of our love,
With the warmth of his smile
​ chilling my heart,
And the light of his eyes
not brightening my dark,
The honeyed fruit he fed
I could not digest,
Yet the songs that he sang
to the marks of your teeth
were sweet
so sweet.

Loren Blowers ~ Copyright 2016

There is Only East

Come now,
Leave the pieces there, my son,
however precious
and dear,
Do not lovingly gather them in your trembling hands
and wash them with your tears,
Leave them in the uncaring dirt
under countless trampling feet,
And turn your face East
one step
warmth
another
light
So heavy
So arduous
as though the strings of your betrayed heart
have tethered you
Where once you sang
Where once you flew
Now wound so tight
Too tangled and brittle for flight,
Save your weary wings, my son,
You can't yet fly
But you can't stay here,
And turn your face East
one step
warmth
another
light
Until some day far away
From this place where you were torn apart,
There is no healing a broken heart.

Tongues chatter
after thoughts that flee
down dim
narrow
twisting
paths.
Up three crumbling walls
the mind frantically crawls
and round and round
the tongue chatters.
Not a trap
There's one way back
But to turn and see
From what you fled...
Far too scary.
Better to claw
Better to crawl
Better to scratch and chatter
Better to scratch and chatter.
Now as for me
I won't say a thing
I'll smile and hum and watch TV
(the one they wheel in front of me). I shall brush my teeth
and brush my teeth
and brush my teeth
and stare
with a bloody grin
pull whiskers from my chin and chew when I'm supposed to swallow.
And we shall be so very glad
so very, very, very ​g​lad
when
I
go
mad.

A figment,
to savor and stealclose
don’t open your eyeshold tight
before it’s torn
​Leaving you far from then
in the never place
when nothing and no one and nothing is
to hear
to feel
to see
or taste
​And you wonder how you got from then
to now
to when
to nothing
in the never place
Because you didn’t move
you didn’t move
​ you didn’t
you’re sure
from then
But look again
You didn’t
You’ve been here all along
all alone
with nothing and no one
in the never place

​Every battle fought and won,
​ until toward me
you turned your gun
​ not to kill but to stun.
Again, shots fired!
​ Along with me
you looked to see
and didn't know
​ convincingly.
​Then kneeling with a kindly mien,
you dressed my wounds
​ and wished me well
though every time I rose
I fell.
Weaker and weaker with each hit,
so little of me
I longed to quit
with no relief in sight,
bullets winging left and right.
​But nursing me, you'd softly say, "Have faith, my love.
Against the world
​ it's just we two."
​ So, how could I know
​ of your murderous coup?